Wholehearted Faith

A Return, But With Growth. This is one of the harder reviews I've ever written. Not because the book wasn't amazing - this was easily Evans' strongest book since Searching for Sunday, and thus the book that I'd always hoped she would be able to write again. But because of how it came about, and, perhaps, how it came to be in such strong form. Evans' sudden illness and then death in the Spring of 2019 shocked any who had ever heard of her, and in fact on the day of her funeral I read Faith Unraveled as my own private funeral for this woman that had given voice to so many of my own thoughts in Searching For Sunday, thus gaining a fan, and yet who in subsequent books had strayed so far afield that even as a member of her "street team" for show more the last book she published before her death, Inspired, I couldn't give it the glowing review expected of such members, and so felt I had to leave the group. This was something I actually discussed with both Evans and the PA that was leading the team, and neither one of them in any way suggested it - yet my own honor had demanded it.

With this book, finished from an unfinished manuscript by her friend Jeff Chu and clearly still in the research and pondering phases when Evans was suddenly cut from this reality, the commitments to her progressive ideals that ultimately derailed so much of Inspired still shine through, but the more humble, the more questioning nature of Searching For Sunday form much more of the substance of the book. Thus, for me, this book is truly both the best and the fullest representation of the Evans that I knew only through reading her books and occasionally speaking with her as a member of that street team. I've never read anything from Chu, so I don't know his voice as an author, but there is truly nothing here that doesn't sound as though Held herself wrote it - which actually speaks to just how much care Chu put into his own contributions, as there is truly no way to pull such seamlessness off without intense concentration and care.

I was tortured in writing my review of Inspired because Evans *was* someone I looked up to after Searching For Sunday. She was a contemporary, along with Jonathan Merritt, who grew up in a similar region and culture as I did and thus with whom I was able to identify so many similar experiences in similar times and places. (To be clear, if any of the three of us were ever in the same place - even the same evangelical Christian teen megaconference - at the same time growing up, I never knew of it.) And I am tortured now both because I of what I had to write in that review to maintain my sought-after as-close-to-objective-as-I-can-be standard of reviewing and because of what this particular book means in the face of her death over two years ago. But I do find solace in that even knowing all of this is going on in my head writing this review, there was truly nothing here that I could and would normally strike as objectively bad. There weren't any claims of an absolute here - this went back to the more questioning and searching nature of Searching For Sunday rather than the more near-polemic nature of Inspired. There wasn't even any real proof texting going on here - which is particularly great since it was Evans herself (along with some others) who actually started that particular war I wage every time I see the practice in a book. The writing was as beautiful as anything Evans has ever produced, and while the bibliography in this Advanced Review Copy was a bit scant at just 9% of the text, this also was a much more memoir-based book (yet again: more in the vein of Searching For Sunday) and thus scant bibliography is easily explained by specific genre.

And thus I feel that the 5* rating is objectively warranted, at least by my own standards, even as I fully understand that it could come across to some as any level of death-bias.

If this is truly the last book that will ever bear Rachel Held Evans' name, I personally couldn't have asked for a better one to be her finale. This is truly going out as strong as she possibly could, and thus it is absolutely very much recommended. show less

This is my first Rachel Held Evans book, although it is her last, as it was finished posthumously by her close friend and author Jeff Chu. He took her work in progress and wove it together with some of her other unpublished pieces. Jeff shares how he kept Rachel’s “shining and incomparable voice – wise and witty, curious and courageous, faithful and gracious.”

I appreciated Rachel’s honesty, her perspective, her sense of humor, and her fearlessness.
As she shared her experiences and her thoughts I found myself reading just one more section, another chapter, a few more pages.

Towards the beginning of the book Rachel explained the title: “Wholeheartedness means that we can be doubtful and still find rest in the tender embrace of show more a God who isn’t threatened by human inconsistency. Wholeheartedness means that we can ask bold questions, knowing that God loves us not just in spite of them but also because of them – and because of the searching, seeking spirits that inspire us to want to know God more deeply.” And then later she says, “I’ve come to believe that wholehearted faith isn’t just about coming to terms with the heart that beats inside me. Wholeheartedness is about seeing and comprehending my place in a bigger family of faith. It is about risking hurt and confusion for the sake of the thing that so many of us seek: belonging.”

This book is a thoughtful look at faith from a deeply personal perspective – it’s encouraging and inspiring. show less

Rachel Held Evans is a beautiful writer. She has a literary way of entering the Scriptures fully as herself, and invites us into the same.

In this book she brings her whole self, and demonstrates how to show grace to ourselves and even to our enemies. She pours love for the reader and the world into every page. Her final chapter, Telos, is beautiful and heartbreaking. A chapter on a complete life when hers was cut so short.

I read it too fast although I really tried not to. I want to read it again and again.

Listening to this can be heartbreaking at times because it sounds as if some of the readers are doing everything they can to keep from crying; this makes sense as they’re all friends and family of the author, who died two years ago at only 37. This is a lovely read which has me thinking more as I do when I read books by Held Evans; I’m fascinated by those who grew up evangelical and have questions as they grow up. Jeff Chu did a wonderful job at bringing Rachel’s final writings to life.

I find this book to be a conundrum. Sometimes I felt Rachel was so far out of the box that I could not relate. Most of the time, however, I enjoyed her thoughts and deductions, her opinions and ideas, and her way of looking at different subjects that made me stop and ponder in ways I never have before.

At the time of her tragic death in 2019, Rachel was working on a new book about wholeheartedness. With the help of her close friend and author Jeff Chu, that work-in-progress has been woven together with some of her other unpublished writings into a rich collection of essays that ask candid questions about the stories we’ve been told - and the stories we tell - about our faith, our selves, and our world.

This book is for the doubter and the dreamer, the seeker and the sojourner, those who long for a sense of spiritual wholeness as well as those who have been hurt by the Church but can’t seem to let go of the story of Jesus. Through theological reflection and personal recollection, Rachel wrestles with God’s grace and love, looks show more unsparingly at what the Church is and does, and explores universal human questions about becoming and belonging. An unforgettable, moving, and intimate book. show less

Evans offer her views on faith, original sin, incarnation, belief and skepticism, individualism, the folly of the extremes of both fundamentalist and progressive mindsets, and why she changed some of her original beliefs to ones that were more inclusive because she feels they are more authentically those of the “first-century Palestinian rabbi,” Jesus.